Episode 14: Dr. Ernie Ward does paddle boarding

Dr. Ernie Ward is big on nutrition and exercise, but his love for surfing, paddle boarding and other sports in and around the ocean turns out to be bigger than that. He and his wife (his girlfriend at the time) bonded over a love of the ocean with SCUBA diving. And it’s his way of getting closer to nature. 

“It's that connection with the energy … nature … this body that engulfs the entire planet,” Ernie says of the ocean. It’s a personal challenge, with risks, and a chance to interact with a water world full of fish, sharks and more. “I know that when I talk like that, people start to go, ‘Oh, Ernie’s getting into his woo-woo stuff.’" 

Don’t tune out the “woo-woo”! Give it a chance. Ernie pitches us on how time on the water centers him and enriches his marriage (“We began our relationship in the water”), his family (“We raised our daughters surfing”), his mental state and his physical health (It’s an alternative to his Ironman work, which can be harder on the legs). And how he almost died in hurricane surf (roughly around minute 19). 

(PHOTO CREDIT: "Raglan" by tkw954 is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) 

 

WANT TO KNOW MORE? 

> Ernie surfs, but he also paddle surfs and paddle boards. Check him out paddle boarding with his dog and surfing.  

> Ernie’s wife, Laura, was always a little turned off by surfing: too much jockeying for position, too out of the norm for a thirtysomething woman to surf with all those testosterone-riddled teens. Now, she’s into it, especially after a surfing trip she and Ernie took right before the COVID-19 pandemic hit. The L.A. Times write about gender in surfing here. 

> Calcific tendinosis of the Achilles? “It just means my Achilles has turned into a solid mound of hard flesh, and it’s a real problem,” he says. Ouch. 

> Ernie mentions a book from his friend, Steven Kotler, Stealing Fire; it’s on my reading list now. (Ernie clearly had Hunger Games on the brain, and he calls it Catching Fire.) Check out Kotler's website.